So you want to build a Storm Eagle...

Short answer - don't.

Long answer...

FW resin, meet my friend Mr. Clamps...

Now this is how the Steagle sat on my shelf for nearly a year, which was long enough for the top rear panel to almost nearly not quite fit where it needed to be...Seriously, it was, and still is way out from where it ludicrously claims it ought to physically be able to exist. The fit is so bad, I eventually had to pin both sides of the fuselage to the floor, even after hours of heating and filing. Even then, the front ramp sits in a gap that is too big for it, requiring plasticard and Greenstuff to help out.

Further on....you can see that even the plastic on this kit is bent,  the front 'flap' of the cockpit housing the (absent) Multimelta is lifting away from the hull...You can also see that the resin differs in colour, depending on whether it had sat in the sun on my shelf or the darkness of the hobby cupboard for a year...

I had to remove significant amounts of the rears of the top wing parts (where the Greenstuff is in the above pic) just to get them in, the main issue being that the front plastic top panel just wouldn't sit in the right position, consequently shifting all the parts behind it out of position...The engines are pinned into the hull for strength, most of the weight is on the wings and rear of the model (which also causes 'issues' in terms of flying stand stability). Don't forget to pin the landing skids to their legs either, I didn't trust them to hold the weight of the thing alone. Magnetising is an option here.

Pretty much there!

Here she is, pretty much done and awaiting undercoat. What a labour of...well, it wasn't love, certainly. Bit of a grind, really!

Best of a bad job an' all that...

Here you can see the WIP 'Greenstuff covered in Liquid Greenstuff' phase of the project. Yeah. It looks better than this now, promise!

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Overall, this is a great looking model (remember the brick-like abomination this kit is based on) that is dragged down by horrendous warping and bad fit. Equally it's so rear-heavy extra attention will be required to get it to go safely (and/or semi-permanently) on its flying stand. God-Emperor knows how I'll transport it either. I can't really recommend the kit itself to anyone, never mind the inexperienced modeller, just get a Spartan instead. (Der H: Funny you should mention that...) It does pretty much the same job and is more survivable (on and off the battlefield). However, if you really want, or list restrictions require you to have a flyer transport, you don't have any other option in this price range...in that case, Emperor be with you.

Handro

Handro lives!...

...and therefore builds things!

It begins...

Behold! As DerH mentioned, I did indeed pick up both variants of Land Raider Proteus at the FW Open Day, and by some dark magic, have turned them both around from bags of bits to fully built tanks in less than a week. I know, sit down, I've gone light-headed. The reason? Well, we've only gone and signed up for a campaign weekend in December, for which I bravely decided to volunteer my Sons of Horus for. Y'know, that army I've been collecting for the best part of a decade but barely has 1000 points painted. Yeah, that one.

So now I'm looking at completing around 1000 points a month until December, so I gotta build at lightning speed just to keep up my average whilst I'm unlikely to be finishing painting anything in the first month.

As you can see above, both tanks have Sons of Horus doors (on a whim, despite me picking up the newer transfer sheet too). I preferred this design to the big round eye one, the chains make it more evil somehow. (Everyone  knows chains = evil, right?)

Such has been the strength of my hobby zeal, a notorious kit that has been lurking on my shelf for nearly a year now has rolled onto the hobby conveyor belt...

I don't think there is a single straight panel on this thing...I got lucky with the Land Raiders not being as bad as I feared, but it was all paid back with interest on the Steagle...It's a little further on than in this pic; engine blocks and funny top wing things (DerH - technical term) are on and greenstuffed. On the home stretch hopefully!

Thought for the day: For the Warmaster!

 Handro.

Progress! ETL Progress

We actually had a hobby day! Brother Handro made some progress on his new knights, and I pushed on with my ETL vow! 

Gorgeous sunny day in Manchester so we were outside, made the paint dry faster!! 

Six jetbikes near finished! They all had Halfords grey primer, then a three stage airbrush (dark/mid/light purples and a wash) then silver.  

After that it’s gold and brass with details. 

The majority of the jetbikes use a white triangle on the front armour plate:

Whilst the Sergeant has a band instead: 

I have plans for a champion on jetbike so stay tuned!! 

 Der H & Brother Handro

Summer 2018 - Pledges, the ETL, and life in general!

Well that was a long month! For once, I've made no progress because I've been on call or away for every weekend for the last 5!

April's pledge for me was a complete non-starter. With Land Rover woes [Brother Handro: "Joys of classic motoring right?"] and work it just didn't happen. May has also been empty so far, mainly due to weekends out of the country, or certainly out of the basement!

Life overall is getting better, but still very changeable!

To top this off, I have a post grad exam coming up which is costly - in both time and money (£1000 worth to be precise!).

Brother Handro and I have been talking - rarely, but it happens! - and have a plan: for the summer we will have no Hobby Butterfly Pledges. Instead, given a love of a certain forum, we will engage in the ever popular...

=][= E Tenebrae Lux VI =][=

...without further ado!

Der H

I Der H rise to the challenge of E TENEBRAE LUX with my IIIrd Legion and vow to complete 6 Scimitar Jetbikes as a Sky Hunter Squadron, with a sky Hunter Sgt with Phoenix power spear on or before August 1st, 2018. Success will redeem my honour whilst failure will doom me to wear the Badge of the Oathbreaker and bring shame upon my Legion.

My pledge can be found here and my progress can be found on my Bolter and Chainsword plod here.

Brother Handro

May the forces or the warp, the Warmaster, the Emperor, or mighty Slaanesh guide our way!

Brother Handro & Der H

Idea time - Brecourt Manor Board (Part 2)

...where were we....oh yes!

Look what I found!

A huge board of Xtratherm. 10cm deep, 81cm wide and 169cm long. I was thinking of making two different Arcworlde boards for Troubles in the North. I also toyed with the idea of a cross roads map. In the end I settled on making the battery at Brecourt Manor. The only problem was modularity and mobility. the board as is is huge and unweildy (hence the chipped/torn edges). I wanted to make it as two boards with interchangeable positions - I love the assault on the guns, but not enough for it to be all I play!

Taking the line diagram above, along with the satelite image from google, I started to use GIMP to work out a board. GIMP allows images in cm measurements so things can be scaled appropriately.

Although the guns line up with the hedge row quite well, the fields to the left of the image dont...GIMP to the rescue!

This plan, to scale with my board, has the hedges moved and re positioned to match the google earth view. This fits nicely with a two part board where the left hand board can be moved and rotated to match any of the other edges!

Unfortunately there is a minor hitch...at this scale 6 inches and the 25mm bases don't quite work...and to run an 80cm x 80cm board I need to lose 10cm from one end!

Idea time - Brecourt Manor Board (Part 1)

Hot on the heels of another unnecessary purchase [Brother Handro: "Is any of it necessary..."] we have another project lined up.

Everyone loves Band of Brothers, right? Anyone who says they don't is a liar! Of course, best episode is hotly contested with Bastogne often winning out. Best individual battle....now that is a question. Foy is of course legendary, as is cross roads, but I have to say the assault on the gun battery at Brecourt manor is something else all together.

For those that don't know the operation, there are some great descriptions here, here, here, and here!

The general premise is that Winters, tasked with taking out some presumed 88mm artillery, takes a small force from Easy Company and successfully assaults a fixed position to eliminate 4 German artillery pieces which are shelling the landing zones on D-Day. The operation, and Winters' tactics, are reportedly still taught at West Point today.

The area around Ste-Marie-Du-Mont includes a manor house at Brecourt. Various maps are available at the sources linked to above, and some of these help give an idea of the exact position of the field.

Some careful google mapping, and it is possible to find the corner of the field today - note that North is now roughly at the 8 O'clock position.

The sattelite photo graphs dont give much of a clue, but thankfully the history keen community have drawn up a number of handy maps giving an idea of the locations of guns and various important details.

This diagram gives a nice range of detail. but can be nicely cut down to the important details as seen below.

In the next post I'll give more detail on how we can recreate this terrain for wargaming!

Unboxing - German Heer leFH 18/40 10.5cm howitzer (1943-45)

Behold, more frivolous purchases!

I finally caved in an bought my self a treat....amongst the many other treats!

I've recently met someone who has never watched Band of Brother - who doesnt love Band of Brothers right! As such, it must all be watched again. It doesnt take long to get to the infamous Assault of Brecourt manor with Winters' attack on a fixed gun battery.

In this sequence Easy Company take on a German artillery battery which, although initially thought to be 88mm guns, turns out to be a battery of LeFG 18/40 10.5cm Howitzers.....funnily enough, I know a company who makes those!

Helpfully, Warlord gave many people a voucher recently - under the guise of a survey to see why I havent bought anything recently....needless to say I spent MUCH more than they gave me in discount so they win again!

Its a nice looking kit....I'll take 4! (and two MG42s!)

The kit is, currently, unassembled still. This is because larger things are in the works. It does look very tidy. Nice casting as usual from warlord, and the addition of the three equipment, ammo and gear boxes is nice. Once the plans are revealed I will start some assembly and let you know how it goes together!

Did someone say shame?

Pledges - April 2018

Progress! Lets keep it going.

Der H

I, Der H, do hereby pledge to complete my Dreadclaw drop pod for my IIIrd legion!

Brother Handro

I, Brother Handro, lacking time and Tau HQ choices this month, do hereby pledge to complete Aun'Shi AKA Tau Rambo...Tau'Mbo, if you like.